“Imagine, Paul said to me once, that the present is simply a reflection of the future. Imagine that we spend our whole lives staring into a mirror with the future at our backs, seeing it only in the reflection of what is here and now. Some of us would begin to believe that we could see tomorrow better by turning around to look at it directly. But those who did, without realising it, would’ve lost the key to the perspective they once had. For the one thing they would never be able to see in it was themselves. By turning their backs on the mirror, they would become the one element of the future their eyes could never find…
For years I’ve been determined to get on with my life by doggedly hunting down the future… It’s a blind way to face life, a stance that lets the world pass you by, just as you think you’re coming to grips with it.”
— Extract from “The Rule of Four” by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
“You know, for the longest time, I kept trying to make my life easier. It wasn’t until a month or so ago that I started to realize just how unbelievably fucking stupid that was. We’re not here to have an easy life. We’re not even here to do the things that we have to do. We are here to do the things we choose to do, and sometimes we choose to do them because they are challenging, not in spite of it. Would you keep playing a video game that was trivial to beat?”
— Phillip J. Eby
“Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only arseholes do that.” (Nagasawa)
“You try too hard to make life fit your way of doing things. If you don’t want to spend time in an insane asylum, you have to open up a little more and let yourself go with life’s natural flow… So stop what you’re doing this minute and get happy. Work at making yourself happy.” (Reiko)
— from “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami